


Turian's best varren

by Vahditar



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alien Planet, Before Mass Effect 1, Biological Weapons, Drama, Female Shepard (Mass Effect) - Freeform, Friendship, Loyalty, Mass Effect 1, Missions Gone Wrong, Nihlus Kryik - Freeform, Original Varren Character(s) - Freeform, Pet, Saren Arterius - Freeform, Survival, Varren (Mass Effect) - Freeform, animal companion, gene manipulation, strange creature, vahditar fanfics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21733000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vahditar/pseuds/Vahditar
Summary: Spectre Nihlus is one of the best. But even he has sometimes unlucky days, when a mission gets a bit more complicated and all odds are against him. This time however he seems to have company in form of a strange creature which has a peculiar obsession towards him.
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

The first thing Nihlus noticed as he regained consciousness was the dull aching pain that wracked his body. He was trapped under a metal crate and pile of other debris.  
Exactly where he was trapped was unclear.  
He appeared to be inside a ship, though whether it was still floating in space at that moment or if the ship's damage was the result of crash on a planet surface, he couldn't tell.  
Slowly, it came back to him. He was a Council spectre on a mission to track down a laboratory involved in illegal biological testing and research. The lab was run by a turian ex-military officer and employed asari scientist as well a substantial number of hired mercenaries as security.

The mission: find and destroy the lab. Arresting the turian and the asari was optional.

It should have been an easy job but, well, sometimes things don't go so smoothly, even for a spectre. Especially if someone panics and uses their biotics in a laboratory stocked with highly unstable chemicals.  
At least I'm still alive, Nihlus thought as he looked over at the blue body crushed under metal crates just a few meters away from him. The remains of a few of the mercenaries poked out from underneath other piles of debris.

Ok, Nihlus thought, let's see just how bad things are...  
The turian clenched his jaw and, with all of his strength, pushed against the junk piled on top of him.  
He then screamed and almost blacked out a second time, the dull, aching pains in his body having suddenly transformed into sharp, searing lightning. Huffing for air, he glanced to his right and noticed for the first time that his arm was trapped by a heavy metal crate. And, as if understanding that, the pain in his right arm deepened. Nihlus began to feel nauseous and he broke into a cold sweat.

Dammit, you're a spectre, he told himself. You've had it worse before. Just don't panic and worsen things. Start slowly. Take stock of the situation.  
He could still feel his arm and his three digits. A good sign. As long as the nerves weren't damaged, it could still be fixed.

Looking around, the spectre spotted his vindicator rifle just within reach of his free arm. Grinding his teeth, Nihlus leaned over and pulled the gun to him. He put the safety back on and jammed the rifle's barrel under the crate covering him. With all of the strength he could muster, he pushed the butt of the rifle upwards.  
He only got the crate up by a scant few centimeters, but it was enough to wiggle free before he let the box fall back down. The force of it bent the rifle's barrel.

Better that than my hand, Nihlus thought. At least he still had a pistol with him, as well as his omni-tool blade.

Inspecting the arm, the brown-plated turian cursed a couple of times. Something was broken below the elbow, and the omni-tool's implant was damaged too. He couldn't activate it, either to get any information for himself or to send out a message. He was on his own.

Nihlus sighed. Despite it all, he had been in worse situations.

Just needed to check on the other turian, eliminate them if necessary, and gather up the intel on the lab. Mission accomplished. Then either relocate to his ship or, if that wasn't possible, find a way to send a message to the Council. Saren would knock his plates off for making such a mess of the mission, but that's future Nihlus' problem.

His armor's medi-gel function still worked at least. He applied some to his arm, numbing the pain, before fixing his other, more minor wounds. After a quick bit of scavenging, he created a makeshift splint and a sling.  
Slowly getting up and leaning against a wall - which he quickly realized was actually a ceiling - the turian started to look for a way out of the destroyed laboratory. The door he originally used was now far above him. An expert climber with both hands could make - maybe.  
Some other route then.

If he was standing underneath the main door, then the other way out was ought to be underneath him. Searching the floor -that is, the wall- Nihlus found the back door.

It was blocked. By a giant glass tube laying on its side. Something was inside of it. Something alive.

The turian couldn't identify the creature, which was curled up in a tight ball. Nihlus remembered he had seen other creatures like it, all in their own tubes, when he had first snuck inside the laboratory. This one was just a little smaller.  
Nihlus tapped the glass with his healthy arm, his index claw making a "clink clink" sound against the surface.

No reaction. Nothing moved.

He took out his pistol and walked a couple of steps back, then shot the glass. Half of the tube shattered, liquid poured out and the creature slide onto the floor.  
Carefully stepping over the creature, balancing himself by grabbing on to the tube's glass remains, Nihlus started making his way to the door.  
The fluid turned out to be oily and highly slick. Nihlus lost his footing and fell hard on his back, collapsing on top of the creature and the broken glass. The tube's shards crunched against his armor but did not penetrate. Nihlus uncovered head slammed against the floor.

For second time, the spectre lost consciousness.  
This is just not your day, Nihlus, the spectre thought in the last moment before the world descended into blackness.

As Nihlus regained consciousness he realized that this time he wasn't alone.  
He could feeling heavy breathing and a chemical odor on his face. The turian winced and cautiously opened his eyes.

They immediately widened, mandibles pressing tightly inwards, as he saw the creature from the broken tube staring down at him.  
Nihlus had never seen a beast precisely like this. It closely resembled a varren: four legs with large, orange eyes and hugely overgrown canine teeth.  
The expression on the beast's face was blank. Vacant, even. This was one dumb animal, Nihlus thought.

It was also covered in black-colored natural plate armor. The plates extended from its forehead all the way down to its haunches. A short red mane adorned its head and neck. A pair of mandibles hung slackly on either side of its face as a thin, blue forked tongue lolled out.

The turian didn't know what the creature was but he also didn't appreciate its closeness. He punched the alien's head, and heard a loud yelp as the thing scurried away.  
Turning on to his side Nihlus noticed the fleeing thing was much more agile and slender than a varren. It started climbing up the room's wall and soon vanished from the spectre's view. The last thing Nihlus saw was it's long, armored tail.

A worrisome thought hit Nihlus: the other creatures may also be out of their tubes, probably alive and roaming nearby. They might not be as easily intimidated as this one had been.  
Nihlus struggled to his feet, grunting when saw his bleeding hand. The part of the glass he had grabbed onto earlier had pierced the skin.  
The turian applied more medi-gel and went to the door.  
Activating a blue energy dome around his head, just in case, he then pushed a button and the exit slide open.

A short corridor lead straight down with a couple of doors, but he was most interested on the one at the end of the hallway. Most likely, that was the one that lead to the cockpit.  
Carefully using his good arm to climb down from one prominent metal pillar to another, the turian descended.

The varren-like creature returned to room where Nihlus had regained consciousness. It looked curiously at the open door. It tilted its head, amber eyes blinking.  
It sniffed. Looking upwards, it spotted some blue blood on the tube's remains.  
The creature lifted its head more, not reaching, and then hopped up on its hindlegs, its tail proving additional balance.  
A fork tongue licked at the blood. Then a couple of times more.

Dropping back onto all fours, letting out a soft whine as some glass stabbed it's paws, the creature smacked its mouth.  
It kept staring at the open exit.

Nihlus was surprised when the door did not open to the cockpit nor to another room or corridor. It was an exterior door. He saw solid ground below, and it was close too. Taking out his pistol, he jumped down and after landing looked around with his gun drawn.  
The environment was lush, filed with all manner of green flora. Sunlight was plentiful.  
Finally, some good news, Nihlus thought. The ship had landed into the nearest planet, Gei Hinnom, in Sheol's system. It was home to several mining groups. If he could make a contact with one, he could use their technology to call his ship.  
That could be tricky though. There were several rival groups on the planet, all eager to protect their territory and therefore likely armed.

Still, it was a manageable situation for a spectre. No need to worry yet. Or...  
Looking at the trail dug into the ground by the ship as it crashed, Nihlus judged in which direction the ship's other half, and the cockpit, would likely be found. It would be a better start than wandering aimlessly in this untamed planet with fidgety prospectors.  
Glancing up to sky, the turian saw that sun was still well above the horizon. He began the long hike ahead of him.

As Nihlus left the crashing site, various yelps began emanating from the wreck, heading towards the open door at a fast pace.  
A dark, ball-like thing launched itself through the doorway, rolling several meters once it hit the ground.  
The creature uncurled, stood up on shaky legs and shook its whole body. Then it looked at its surroundings curiously, a tail half of its length swishing in the air.  
It took a couple of whiffs first, then starting rapidly sniffing at the air. The beast brought it's head to the ground and then looked in the direction the turian had taken.

The creature began heading in the same direction, slightly limping on one of its forelegs.

Hearing the approaching sound of a skycar, Nihlus quickly took cover behind a tree. A second sound caught his attention: something crashing through the underbrush. It was heading in his direction, and fast.  
An adult varren with a thick collar around its neck came into the turian's view, then stopped and panted while looking around. It started sniffing, wandering towards the direction where Nihlus had come from. It caught the turian's scent and moved towards his hiding spot.  
Pistol ready, the turian clenched his mandibles and held his breath as he waited.

The varren suddenly stopped, silently staring in the spectre's direction.  
The skycar made a round above them before starting to descend, two passengers eventually jumping out onto the ground.  
Nihlus remained hidden.  
The vehicle lifted above the treetops and then kept hovering there.

"What did yah find, boy?" asked a female human. Her question was answered with a soft growl.  
"Come out with raised hands!" a batarian shouted next.  
The spectre revealed himself, stepping from behind the tree with his pistol drawn.  
"Good day", the turian declared, mindful of the two guns pointed towards him as well as the growling varren.  
"Who the fuck are you?" the male batarian asked.  
"A spectre who needs to use your skycar to reach a transmitter so he can get off of your planet", the turian explained in pleasant voice.  
"A spectre?" the human replied.  
"A fucking cop", the batarian explained to his human companion.

Nihlus held himself from correcting the misunderstanding. His thoughts focused instead on whether to eliminate these threats or try to reach some agreement with them.

"Don't worry, I'm not investigating anything you may be doing. I have much more pressing things to take care of," the turian said, eyeing the duo's equipment.  
Most likely miners, he thought. The guns and the stalking varren were the only things making them a threat for now. That and whoever was driving the skycar.

"So you were in that spaceship, the one that ripped in half when crashing?" the human female asked.  
"What was in that ship?" the batarian barked, moving his rifle threateningly.  
The varren growled hearing its master's raised voice.  
"Nothing you should bother with", the turian replied, keeping his manner casual even as he kept aiming at them. He was still in pain, the arm's aching varying unevenly, and he wanted this mission to be over already.

"If you don't want to help me get out of here, then I guess I'll be continuing my walk," he told the pair.  
"You ain't-" the human started, but she was stopped by the turian's sudden cold glare. The batarian and the varren froze as well.  
"It would be good for everyone, if we just went our separate ways", Nihlus announced.

The human let out a low whistle, tapping a side of her leg. The fishdog turned obediently and calmly went to the duo.  
"Don't come back," the batarian threatened, turning away as the woman looked up and signaled to the skycar with a hand gesture.  
Something in the batarian's eyes warned Nihlus. The spectre instantly shot when the male quickly turned back around, gun in hand. Two more shots took down the human and the varren.

The skycar sped away, disappearing in mere seconds.

Sighing and slumping his shoulders, the turian looked down at the bodies.  
Seems like the mining groups should be evaded, he thought. Their friends will likely come looking for me.  
Hopefully the cockpit's transmitter would work.

The armored varren creature arrived at the scene of the shooting. It halted for a moment when seeing the bodies, and next crouched while shaking lightly as it sniffed around them.  
It found the familiar scent of the turian. And bodies. Dead ones.  
As the corpses didn't move, the creature got braver and approached. Tapping with a frontpaw at one of them, it quickly retreated and then neared a second time.  
It examined the bodies with its snout and lapped fresh blood from both.

The creature paused at the dead varren, blinking. It bit down on the dead animal, ripping out a large chunk of meat. It tugged so hard that when the flesh tore free, the beast fell backwards, yelping as it landed on its butt.  
With a gulp it swallowed the chunk whole.  
It immediately started choking.

The beast held its head low, retching loudly. The meat chunk finally flew out of its mouth. The creature panted for air.  
Then with a growl it jumped again on the meat. This time it ripped off a smaller chunk before chewing and swallowing.

The creature didn't finish its meal, as it realized the need to follow the turian. But it did give another glance at the bodies...

After some crunching, gnawing and snapping, the creature continued to track the spectre.  
Clenched in its maw was the torn human's arm, its hand still holding a pistol which dragged against dirt.


	2. Chapter 2

It was getting dark on the jungle planet.

Though Nihlus wanted to reach his destination as soon as possible, he was in need of a break. He had avoided another group of miners, getting a lucky break that this bunch didn't have any varrens, and put as much distance between him and them as he could. He'd been constantly on the move throughout the day, and his reserves of stamina were running low, exacerbated by wounds that medi-gel could only do so much for.

The planet was unfamiliar to him and the last thing he needed to do in his condition was to get turned around and lost, so Nihlus periodically scribbled arrows into the dirt and carved markers onto trees as he went along. Satisfied that he'd be able keep going in the same direction in the morning, the turian started looking for a spot to rest for the night.

He found a tall bolder with a flat, wide top. Climbing up it was a bit of a struggle, but the panting turian soon was on lying on his back and looking up at the night sky. Letting go of his pistol for a moment, Nihlus took a ration bar and started slowly eating it.

He started daydreaming of the comfort of his apartment, hitting the bars on the Silversun Strip with friends and maybe finally buying a small pet from that store, the one that had that cute turian working there with the nice hips. Dammit, what was her name... ?

 _'I should probably buy a fish,'_ he told himself. _'Maybe a couple them.'  
_ They would be easy to take care of and he wouldn't need to worry if a mission was taking longer than expected to finish. He could just ask a friend to stop by his apartment and take care of them now and then. Someone other than Saren, of course. Just thinking about the stoic turian taking care of a pet, no less being gentle, made Nihlus chuckle hard enough that he nearly choked on his food.

Fatigue soon overtook him and the turian fell asleep. The jungle produced all manner of unusual and suspicious sounds, something that would have ordinarily made sleep impossible for the Spectre agent. He had been trained to be alert and suspicious at all times. But a jungle is never truly quiet and slowly he adapted to this fact...

If Nihlus had been less worn out, he would have been woken by the sound of movement just beyond the boulder's edge. Had he looked over the side, he would have recognized the varren-like creature that he had earlier punched inside of the wreck.

The creature was slowly limping along, its head almost dragging on the ground due to the severed arm it was still carrying around in its jaws. Unbeknownst to Nihlus, the beast had tracked him without stopping throughout the whole day. The turian's scent had lead the creature to the side of a boulder and it stared upward in frustration. There was no doubt that the turian was here, right here. The beast's nostrils flared repeatedly as it searched in vain for a way to reach its quarry.

The creature looked up towards the top of the boulder and its tail lowered. It dropped the arm and slowly walked around the rock until it came back to the dropped limb. In its weary state it had already forgotten about the thing and stumbled over it, letting out a short whimper. It hit ground muzzle first and then fell over onto its side, not getting back up. Instead it just decided that this spot on the ground was a good enough place for resting. After a minute of lazy stretching, it went completely slack and fell asleep.

Nihlus peered down from the boulder's edge, the creature have made enough of a racket when it stumbled to wake the Spectre agent. He quietly watched as it fell asleep. If he hadn't been more worried, he would have thought of the creature as cute in its own odd way. He was troubled however by the realization that the creature had to have been following him ever since the crash.

The turian pondered the situation. He couldn't go back to sleep with that thing still lurking around. Even if it was only maybe half the size of a full grown varren, it still was dangerous. And as an illegally gene-manipulated, bio weapon with unknown abilities, it should be demolished without a second thought. He could just shoot it, Nihlus thought. One good shot right into its eye, ought to do it.

Nihlus steadied his pistol and took aim.

Just then, the slumbering beast pulled into a tight ball, protected by its natural armor. He had to admit it was downright endearing.  
 _'It's just a big bag of sleepiness,'_ Nihlus chuckled.

Still, it need to be wiped out. Stopping biological threats was just another part of a spectre's job, no matter what he personally thought. Then again, killing dumb animals wasn't normally part of that mandate. And should should he really kill the creature while it slept? After all the hard work it had must done to follow him all the way here? Seemed a bit unfair, and unsportsmanlike...

 _'Guess I could wait a bit, then wake the thing up and mercy kill it,'_ the Spectre agent finally decided.

So Nihlus waited. And waited. He almost made cooing noises when the alien in its sleep uncurled with all four paws pointing towards the sky, it's red, scaly belly exposed. And again whenever its mouth made chewing noises and its tongue darted out and licked its muzzle.

 _'Come on, Nihlus. Hold yourself together,'_ he thought.

Yawning, the turian tried to figure out what kind of creature this thing was. It was clearly part varren at least, most of it looking like one of those ubiquitous beasts originally from Tuchanka. Except this one had that thick, natural plate armor. And that unnaturally long tail and furry mane. The tongue was thin and forked too. Was it supposed to be that small or would it grow, if left to live?

Nihlus remembered used to have a varren pet when he was a kid, something he hadn't actually thought about in years. It was back before father died and his mother sent the teenager off the army. He had been forced to give Hubbles away the week before his induction... It wasn't a pleasant memory. The confused, pleading look on the varren's face as he walked away and left it with its new owners had haunted him throughout bootcamp.

 _'Dammit, Nihlus. Quit stalling. Just do it now and get over with it,'_ he told himself. He began to again draw a bead on the creature.

Just as he was about to squeeze the trigger, several sounds, all heading in his direction, made him freeze. Other creatures were out there, and close. Remaining prone on the top of the boulder, the turian saw small pack of four varrens. There were no collars on these four, so they had to be feral. As they bounded into the area they noticed the sleeping creature and slowly approached it. The creature was apparently unaware, still sleeping on its back.

Nihlus glared as the things started approaching and circling the unaware alien.

 _'Come on, wake up,'_ he thought.

He watched as two varrens got closer, their sniffing and growling loud and clear.

 _'Hey, you're gonna get eaten, buddy,'_ the turian muttered under his breath.

Or maybe it would be better that way? Let the nature do its thing and destroy the strange creature before it would grow into a problem? Maybe that was the best solution... Yet it still somehow seemed too harsh, too unfair, the turian thought.

The creature didn't wake up until one the varrens lunged and grabbed it by its hind leg. The mysterious beast let out a panicked yelp and pulled itself free from the startled but now excited fishdog. Rolling onto its feet, it's tail now whipping in the air, the beast spun around and saw the stalking varrens. The beast crouched down, its belly grazing the ground as it let out nervous clicking noises from its open mouth, while its mandibles twitched. The closer varrens growled and snarled, making short lunges towards it, testing the beast.

The spectacle made Nihlus realize how much smaller the creature was compared to these wild, adult varrens. He felt pity for the little guy, who just seemed scared and confused, as it scurried about. The varrens formed a semi-circle, gradually beginning to trap the creature between them and the boulder. One of the varrens started getting much more closer, growling with its head low, ready to attack.

 _'You gotta fight, little buddy,'_ Nihlus muttered.

The threatening varren charged, opening its maw and revealing row of sharp teeth. The alien dodged the attack, proving itself to more agile of the two. It then dodged another varren and another. But it was still four against one and the creature's luck couldn't hold out forever.  
One varren lunged forward and caught its tail, clamping down at about its midpoint. The beast screech in pain and attempted to bolt away but the varren's hold remained firm. The varren began walking backwards, dragging the creature with it.

Nihlus watched as a thick, sharp spike began to protrude from the end of the creature's tail. The varren didn't see it until the creature sent its tail whipping into it's attacker. The tail spike left a long, bloody gash across the varren's head and very nearly took out an eye as well. The varren howled in agony and released the creature. The mysterious beast let out a loud, long hiss at the varren while also displaying its own maw full of sharp teeth.

It still didn't lunge towards any of its opponents though, waiting instead for them to come to it. The varren continued to make short lunges, darting back each time the creature threatened to strike with its tail or snapping at anyone getting too near. Slowly, patiently, the varren kept the creature moving backwards towards the boulder.

 _'Plus for trying,'_ Nihlus thought. It was only a matter of time before the creature let itself be cornered and swarmed by others. Really a shame, Nihlus thought.

Then the varrens would find the turian next, unless he could sneak away while they were feasting on the creature. Not that that meal would take four, full-grown varrens very long to finish, the creature being so small and thin.

A varren jumped and knocked the alien onto its side and against rock, biting down onto its neck. The creature screamed, and stabbed the varren with its tail spike, carving a wide hole into its neck. The varren stumbled backwards.  
The beast was wounded too, blood pouring from its neck and it was having trouble breathing. Finally, the creature went on the offense and charged, biting onto the varren's snout and striking it repeatedly with its tail. The other varrens backed up as the smaller creature let go of the snout and the varren slumped to the ground, motionless.

The creature hissed again at the remaining varren, and this time a corona of crackling blue sparks surrounded it.

Nihlus rolled away from the edge of the boulder just in time to avoid the creature's explosive biotic blast. The varren were violently flung backwards.  
The former predators, now whimpering, turned and ran, disappearing into the night. The creature lay flat on the ground, panted for a few moments, then went quiet.

Slowly, cautiously, Nihlus peered back over the edge, simultaneously shocked and impressed by what the creature had done. Clearly, its creators had been trying to create some kind of super beast of war. That made the creature a genuine hazard. How much larger would it grow? Would it begin multiplying?

Slowly, painfully, the turian struggle up onto one knee.

He raised his pistol.

He saw the creature's head lift up. It stared at him with its big amber eyes, blinking them and tilting its head from side to side.

"...Nothing personal buddy," the Turian said.

The alien let out a huff and started swishing its tail, its tongue lolling out from its slack mouth. It looked so silly. Almost as if it was happy to see him. Wait, was it...  
Wagging its tail at him?

The turian took aim.

Then the varren creature stood up, almost dipping sideways with wobbly legs. It kept swaying -and limping- while moving, then laid down at the feet of the boulder. Then the creature yawned, smacked its mouth and then lowered its head. In seconds, it had curled back into a ball. It began to snore.

Nihlus sighed and holstered his gun.  
He started to make is way down the boulder.

* * *

Hours later, the sleeping creature let out a whine, kicked its legs and woke up. It was immediately confused. Something felt odd.  
Quickly rolling onto its stomach, it raised it tail spike and stood ready to strike. It whipped its head around, realized it was alone and relaxed.  
It was still on the ground next to the boulder.

Smacking its maw and yawning, stretching front legs, the varren creature slowly stood up, then shook its mane and yawned again.

It looked at the rock, puzzled. Sniffing the air revealed the now-faint scent of the turian, who had left the area. The alien also smelled something on itself.  
A chemical, different from the tube's contents. The smell lingered under the creature's chin and on its right paw, which had been hurting ever since stepping on glass.

Hours before, after confirming it was a truly heavy sleeper, the turian had checked the wound on the creature's neck.  
Nothing serious, but a look at the limping paw had revealed couple of stuck glass pieces. The turian had gently pulled the shards out and applied medi-gel onto the creature, then he had stayed with it for an hour. Checking if the fled varren would come back.  
They didn't.  
All this had taken some time and effort on Nihlus' part, maybe more than he could have spared given the situation.  
For the truth, while he would never admit it openly, was that Nihlus was a big softy towards strange and "cute enough" creatures. Maybe, he mused, that's why he was also more tolerating towards humans than turians usually were.

Finding the smell of the healing salve weird, the creature tried to lick the medi-gel off but soon discovered the taste was even worse and relented.

Then the creature stretched out and began searching. It ignored the cold trail of Nihlus' scent as well as the remains of the varren it had killed the night before.  
Finally, the alien found what it wanted. Jumping from happiness, it lunged at the ripped human arm, grabbing it and chewing on it like baby's pacifier.

After this it sniffed the air, spotted the Spectre's scent and resumed tracking it.


	3. Chapter 3

Fortune, it seemed, had taken another turn for the worse for the turian Spectre.

This time, Nihlus had been caught by a group of nine miners. This bunch was clearly not in the mood for talking. Without warning, they began unloading on the turian with everything they had, producing a hail of gunfire that left him pined down behind a boulder. The shots steadily chipped away at the rock, adding random shards of rock to the shrapnel in the air caused by the steady firing.

 _`Are they actually trying to shoot this stone to pieces?´_ Nihlus wondered, as he crouched behind his cover and periodically popped up to fire back. 'Their guns have to be overheating,' he thought during a brief lull. 'Just wait until they get completely stalled.'

Something other than a bullet suddenly flew over and landed at his feet. Nihlus' turian infantry training kicked instinctively once he saw the round device's rapidly accelerating flashes. He grabbed the grenade and hurled it to his left mere miliseconds before it exploded. The blast's force was still enough to throw Nihlus rightwards, out of his cover and into the open. He guessed that the sharp pains in his arm meant that that was now broken as well.

Worse still, his gun was still locked up from overheating. In the space of a few seconds, the Spectre had found himself exposed, crippled and effectively disarmed.

The miners hooted with laughter at the sight. "Aww, look. We clipped the little birdie's wings. Let's put him out of his misery, shall we?" cackled one miner, who began striding towards Nihlus, drawing a bead on the turian as he drew closer. Other miners followed his lead and began to emerge from their cover.

 _'Spirits, just make him move a little slower…'_ Nihlus muttered under his breath as his eyes darted from his pistol's cooldown meter to the approaching miner.

The sound of rapid, panic-y barking drew all eyes to a nearby hill. The sound of rapid, panic-y barking drew all eyes turned to a nearby hill. A four-legged beast was alternately running and tumbling head over paws down the hill. It was moving so fast and uncontrollably that it came tumbling down right between the turian and the miners and then continued right past them. It rolled a few more meters before crashing into another boulder. The collision generated a "thunk" loud enough that the turian and the miners all instinctively winced.

"What the-" one of the miners sputtered as they watched creature unsteadily get back on its feet.

By the time the baffled miners realized that they were now standing in open and had turned their backs on armed turian, it was already too late for them. The distraction caused by the creature was just long enough to allow Nihlus' pistol finish venting its heat. Spectre agent needed only nine rounds to finish off his nine opponents.

The turian let out a deep sigh as the last one slumped to the ground. "Spirits, that was a close one..." he thought as he checked his wounded arm. It was definitely broken.

"Better grab one these idiots' pistols," the turian decided. "I'll need a back-up gun in case I get stuck like that again. Should probably check to see if they any more grenades too."

Nihlus looked up and saw that the four-legged intruder was now approaching him and it was the same bizarre mutant varren he had seen before. It was clearly still shaking off the impact with the boulder, staggering and swaying on its feet like a solider at the end of shore leave. It moved another meter before its legs gave out and it landed on its belly.

The turian clenched his mandibles, trying not to laugh nor smile. He couldn't stop from joking though. "You sure know how to enter a scene, huh?" he quipped. The beast groaned, sticking its forked tongue out.

Nihlus chuckled but his grin faded as the creature struggled to its feet and tried to resume its approach. "No," he sternly said, splaying his mandibles and shooing with his armed hand. Cute or not, he had seen what this beast could do.

The beast recoiled, whimpering as its head dropped low. It continued to stare intently at the turian.

"Don't try that on me," the turian huffed. "I really should just... Exterminate you."

Nihlus scowled at the creature, prompting it to cower even more. After a few second the beast bolted past him, dashing back towards the hill it had tumbled down from.

`That was easy,´ the Spectre thought. How much longer could it survive on this planet? he wondered. Despite its abilities, the beast didn't seem to know how to use them.

"Hm? What's-" Nihlus muttered as he spotted something in the corner of his eye. It was the beast, approaching him yet again. This time it was coming from a slightly different angle as if it thought that might make the turian react differently. Another difference was that this time it held a severed humanoid arm in its maw.

Nihlus watched with amazement as the beast dropped the limb almost at the turian's feet, and the proceeded to stared at him while waving its tail. The creature tilted its head curiously and then, minding to keep the distance, nudged the limb closer with its snout.

The arm's previous owner had been wearing some top of the line body armor which had nevertheless clearly failed to do its job. The limb was dirty and beginning to decay, judging by the smell. The hand was still tightly gripping a pistol.

The Spectre looked at the creature, which stared back at him, its large eyes filled with clear anticipation. The beast used its snout to the nudge the limb forward again, then made some soft whimpering sounds as its returned its gaze to the turian.

That was the final thing.

Nihlus howled with laughter, the absurdity of the situation giving no other way to react. He laughed even more when remembered the human saying. How did it go again? Offering a... Supporting hand, wasn't that it? Well, the Spectre mused, he did need a spare gun!

Maybe he should be disgusted by this, but he had seen so much worse. And the creature was acting with such a pure innocence, that Nihlus found himself rather charmed by the preposterous offering.

The creature blinked at the laughing turian, confused by the reaction and the loud guffaws.

The beast evidently decided it was a positive sign that offering had not been rejected. It started panting, tail waving faster and wider as it tried again to get closer to the turian. Nihlus pointed his pistol at the beast as it approached, attempting to use the barrel to push it away. The creature instead closed its eyes and making soft rumbling noises while rubbing its face against the gun.

Nihlus sighed, dropped the gun and started petting the beast's head fully. It nuzzled it head into the turian's hand. The soft rumbling transformed into a deeper purring sound and creature began to softly tap the ground with its tail.

"You're just a big goof," the turian stated.

Looking back, Nihlus could only recall this animal being aggressive when those other varrens were harassing it. Very untypical for a varren creature.

"I wonder if the people making these things would have the seen this one as a failed experiment due to its lack of aggression personality then," the Spectre thought. "Pretty sad if that was the case..."

The beast almost tipped over while leaning against the turian's gun hand. It was scratching it head against the barrel with pure enjoyment, its mane puffing and one hind leg shaking.

"...Damn it," Nihlus cursed quietly, the beast opening its eyes and looking at him while he kept petting. "Fine buddy. If you so much want to follow me, then tag along."

It would get dangerous when he would get to the other wreck, the Spectre told himself. Hopefully this dumb animal would get wiser before then and leave.

* * *

Nihlus looted the dead miners' bodies, taking as much as he could carry. This turned out to be another handgun, a rifle, grenades, just enough medi-gel to fix his arm and still have some left over. An attempt to hack open one of the miner's omni-tools proved fruitless, the Spectre lacking the necessary software after his own omni-tool broke.

As pondering the best way to carry the various items, the Spectre was disturbed by the sight of the creature gnawing on one of the bodies. "Hey!" he shouted and shooed the beast off the corpse. It backed off, making low clicking noises while cowering. "You don't know where these have been," the turian huffed. "Could give you worms or something."

"Besides, I don't need you developing a specific taste for this kind of meat," the turian muttered under his breath.

Nihlus took one of the miner's bags, grabbed some dried meat from it and threw it at the creature. The lump hit the confused animal's snout and dropped onto the ground. The creature looked down at the piece of meat, sniffed and then pawed it a bit before looking back at the turian.

"It's food, dummy," the Spectre explained, then took another dry piece from the same bag and began gnawing on it. "See? It's- Spirits," he exclaimed, spitting out the chunks he had bitten off. "See what you did? You made me forget that this probably isn't dextro amino acid food! I could get sick if I swallowed this."

The beast stared at him expectingly. Nihlus pointed at the piece of meat in front of it, emphasizing, "But you? It's fine for you. So, Eat it already."

The creature pulled its mandibles together, tensed. Then with a huff, it bent down to swallow the meat with one gulp, it lower jaw briefly becoming unhinged from the upper mouth to inhale the dried lump.

The turian's brow plate rose a bit at this, the animal acting like understanding him actually. Or maybe it just copied his behavior.

After all, Nihlus too had made a weird face while tasting the food.

* * *

After a few hours of hiking the planet's sun began to dip to the horizon, prompting Nihlus to look for a good to bed down for the night. Finding a a discreet spot that offered some protection from the elements, the Spectre fell onto his arse and unwrapped one of his few remaining dextro-amino food bars. The varren creature crawled up to the campsite and Nihlus could only roll his eyes when he saw that it carried a fresh arm in its mouth; This arm was a turian's, and Nihlus shuddered as the beast dropped it at his feet.

Nihlus grabbed the limb and quickly threw it away.

This made the beast look after the thrown arm, then back at the Spectre, then repeating that a couple of times before it rose with a huff. The beast scampered off and returned less than a minute later with the arm. The beast settled next to Nihlus.

Growling, the Spectre grabbed the severed limb again and threw it as far as he could. He then put his healthy hand onto the rising beast's back, pushing it down.

"No," the turian admonished the beast. "Stay."

The creature whined, but after getting its mane petted it closed its eyes with its head leaning against the Spectre.

Nihlus chuckled at the creature's easy personality. At least he wasn't completely alone in this situation. It was even fun having some company, as usually he worked alone at his missions. The turian tapped his three fingers against the animal's neck, then began petting it.

* * *

Asleep, the creature dreamed of a memory.

Surrounded by murky liquid, barely conscious when an unfamilar sound stirred it from its slumber.

 _'Clink, clink,'_ echoed through its mind, as someone tapped the glass tube.

Barely open amber eyes barely saw a blurry character. The most noticeable thing on the tall figure was the long horns on the back of its head. The creature had not seen anyone else having those during its short existence so far.

Again the figure tapped the glass. _'Clink clink.'_

By the echoing sound, there was a sudden flash behind the creature's eyes. A repeating voice. Flashing images. Code rooting itself into subconsciousness.

ATTACH. FOLLOW. OBEY.

The creature startled awake, head lifted and tense. It glanced at the turian who patted its side, speaking with soothing voice.

Smacking its maw and yawning, the animal settled its head onto the turian's lap, falling quickly back to sleep.

* * *

A skycar landed near the other part of the ship, two miners stepping out with rifles at their hands. The duo looked around and listened, until a salarian miner tapped his human colleague and pointed. "That's Kolle's bike."

"So, she should be here," the human declared. "I swear, if she is just fucking around and taking all the goods for herself, I'll tell boss."  
"Yeah. But just in case, let's be cautious," the salarian replied. "Some of the passengers of this ship could still be alive."

The miners moved slowly and deliberately, guns drawn as they walked through into the wreck. What was left of this part of the ship wasn't much. Just a wide and short hallway to an open doorway which seemed to lead to the cockpit.

"Kolle?" the human shouted as they kept on moving.  
"...This place is creepy," grumbled the salarian.

The human started to reply when a voice stopped them in their tracks

 _"HELP!"_ a female voice cried.

Looking at each other they turned around at the hallway.

"Kolle?" the human shouted, as other salarian tried to say: "This is-"  
 _"HELP! HELP ME!"_ the female voice hoarsely shouted.  
"Let's go. Kolle are you hurt?" the salarian yelled.

While entering the wreck, the pair had walked past a small door, hidden behind a collapsed beam. Where the voices where coming from.

"Shit, hang on, we gonna get you out! Grab there, come on, lift on three. One, two-" the human shouted. He suddenly felt something wrapping onto his leg, then sharply pulling it. "Lirnik! Lirnik help!" he gasped.

Screaming, the human miner fell onto the floor and was fast dragged outside of the wreck by a creature with long moving tendrils coming out of its body. The screaming turned into guttural coughing and deep hissing, then into silence.

Stunned, the salarian miner froze, staring after his disappeared friend. The blood in his veins turned cold when heard Kolle's voice right in front of him, again yelling, _"HELP!"_ Instead seeing the batarian female, he saw another creature staring back. It stood on its hindlegs, leaning its forelegs and set of arms onto the beam.

The miner's legs gave out, and the beast tilted its head to aside. Then when opening its mouth again, a different voice came out: _"Lirnik! Lirnik help!"_

The salarian turned and bolted, dropping his weapon in panic. He raced as quickly as he could back to the skycar he and his human friend had left parked nearby.

Outside, behind him, he heard hissing and clicking sounds that got progressively closer even as he pushed his legs as fast as he could. A tendril snapped onto his ankle, tripping him over. The salarian clawed at the ground but found nothing solid to grab. The tendril around his leg tightened and he began to get dragged backwards.

"No! No! No!" the miner shrieked.

The tendril flipped the salarian onto his back. He could only see the beast's mouth and long, blue tongue swiping the air and spattering saliva around. Some of it landed on the salarian, burning through his clothes and making his skin sizzle. Some further spittle from the creature landed in the miner's eyes. His scream echoed throughout the clearing.

In his blind desperation, the salarian did the first thing that seemed logical enough.

He activated his omni-tool and screamed an order. The skycar started and speed forward. It first circled around and then trying to land right next to the salarian as ordered, it hit the creature sending it flying.

The creature let out a yelp, rolled on the ground and then laid still.

Groaning from pain and whimpering from fear, the salarian tried to feel around for the vehicle's door.

_"Lirnik..."_

He froze when hearing his name right behind him and felt the hot breath on the back of his head. This time, there was no screaming.

After the second beast had finished with the salarian, it approached the one that had been hit by the skycar. That beast began shakily standing up. It hissed at the second beast, which was paler and smaller than it.

The pale one opened its mouth, making clicking sounds which made the bigger one to settle back. It turned to look at the miners' bodies, one mauled and other one partly melted, then turned back to the larger beast and spoke in turian voice: _"Fetch. Bodies."_

The two of them took each body, dragging them inside of the wreck, through the hallway and into the cockpit. They placed the bodies next to the carcass of a batarian woman.

The pale one approached the pilot seats, where a turian was laying, gasping for breath. The turian extended his hand and began stroking the animal's forehead, causing the beast to close its eyes.

"Good... Now, bring... Medi-gel," the turian hissed as he tried and failed to sit up. The pale beast approached its kin and said with the turian's voice, while tucking by the leg of the batarian one: "Body. Outside. Eat."

Hissing, the other left with its food, while the pale one sniffed and pawed around, finding what was commanded to bring.

The turian added gel in a open wound in his stomach, where plates had cracked and torn off.

The creature watched the turian and started salivating. Spotting this, the turian snapped, tapping a finger quickly onto a metal surface. The beast snapped to attention. The turian gave the same order: "Body. Outside. Eat." The creature obeyed and left.

Once alone, the turian relaxed somewhat. He glanced at the control panel, which spewed sparks now and then.

Activating his omni-tool, he watched through the surveillance camera placed at the hallway, barely seeing outside of the wreck. Remembering he had heard a skycar, he tried moving the camera and zooming in.


End file.
